Hi Roger.
I have the Hucker 6,6 with with 7 battens. I can now see that the hucker on the Sailworks Webside have 6 battens. I think it´s a bit strange for a just new sail in the autumn 2006 to suffer big changes in such a short time.
Do You know something about that?
with the very best regards
John Jahr

Hi John,
I&#39;ll get bpth my 6.6 m2 Huckers out this morning and see if they are different.
My &#39;06 6.6 m2 Hucker is a proto of the &#39;07 and my &#39;07 6.6 m2 Hucker is the first production sample from the loft in China.
I&#39;ll check them and get back with you tonite.
There could be a typo on the website or something...?
Hope this helps,

Hi John,
You are indeed correct!
The &#39;06 Hucker 6.6 was based more on the 6.5 m2 Retro design (7 battens, 5 above the boom and 2 below the boom)...
For the &#39;07 the 6.6m2 Hucker was derived from the 5.6 Hucker, both in batten layout (6 battens, 5 above & 1 below) and shaping tension distribution. All of the 2007 Huckers, especially the larger sizes are considerably fuller in their seam shaping. This increases not only the potential depth at looser settings, but also the potential rig tension at tight settings.
The "big changes" you refer to are really just the great guys at Sailworks making their usual "incremental improvements" based on their extensive prototype testing in the Gorge and elsewhere.
I spoke with Jim at the loft today and he suggests that when they made up the first 6 batten 6.6m2 prototype (based on the very successful &#39;06 5.6 m2 Hucker design) they found that the 6 batten configuration softened up the lower part of the sail a bit and actually provided more low end than the stiffer 7 batten version.
I have both sails, and by carefully choosing masts, I&#39;m sure you can achieve fairly similar results with either sail.
I spent all of today raging across Pine Island Sound on the &#39;06 4.8 Hucker and the Carve 101/Evo 90/ and Pure Acid 80.
What an amazing rig.....! I was powered up and flying on all 3 of these boards. It was pretty windy (I&#39;m guessing 20-22+ knots) so I rigged for more top end with a Powerex Pre-Preg Wave 90% 430 RDM (to loosen up the top of the little Hucker a bit) and it was simply awesome. Others, on 4.7 Ezzy SE, 5.2 Aerotech, and a 5.0 World Sails
seemed to think the wind was a bit up and down, but I was just ripping the whole afternoon!
Hope this helps,

I can&#39;t wait to order a 6.6. It sounds like it will be a great sail to match up with my iSonic 105. I also envision it will be my largest sail for my AHD Convert 60. I&#39;m still trying to figure out what mast to get to complement my current quiver. I have a 430 & 460 zFree. I&#39;m thinking of getting a zSpeed 460. Then, I can rig the 6.6 with either 460 to get different results. I&#39;m tempted to get an RDM, but then I&#39;d need to get a different extension/base. I think I&#39;m interestd in making sure the 6.6 will have a high top speed. Do you think the zFree will help accomplish this?

Hi o2bnme,
When you come to Hatteras next (to the Windfest....maybe) we can rig some Huckers on your masts, and then the recommended "best", to determine what the differences may be.
I don&#39;t think I have any Z-Free&#39;s, so the closest I can come are the Z-Speeds. The older Z-Speeds rig a little different from the newest ones I have.
And I think you would be giving up quite a bit of range by not getting
a couple of RDM&#39;s.
Perhaps we can get a dry erase marker, and rig the sail on different masts, and mark the perimeter of the loose areas with dry erase, then rig the sail on another mast so we can see the dynamics that each mast gives to the sail.
When I spoke with Jim M. at the loft, he felt that the changes made with the new 6 batten 6.6 m2 have made the top end equal, if not better, but give this sail significantly better bottom end power.
As Bruce P. suggests, the seam shaping they&#39;ve done on this sail should result in better depth of foil at lower downhaul tension, but result in increased overall rig tension at higher downhaul and outhaul settings which should give better top end stability and range.
So far, the Hucker 6.6 (either version) has been pretty fast for me.
I&#39;ll have to test it against my new 6.6 NX slm with the GPS.
Hope this helps,